From the 1860s to the 1900s, British politics was dominated by three giants: Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative), William Gladstone (Liberal), and Lord Salisbury (Conservative). They competed fiercely over how to govern Britain — and above all, over what to do about Ireland.
The party battle in Victorian Britain: Disraeli and Gladstone alternated in power through the 1860s–1880s, turning Parliament into a theatre of rival visions. Disraeli championed Tory Democracy — conservative reform from above. Gladstone believed in moral progress and Liberal individualism. Salisbury, who dominated the 1880s–1900s, was a cautious imperialist suspicious of democracy.
Disraeli — social reform and empire (1874–1880)
Disraeli's second ministry passed a wave of practical social legislation: the Public Health Act (1875) forced local councils to provide clean water and sewers; the Artisans' Dwellings Act (1875) allowed councils to clear slums; the Trade Union Act (1871/1875) gave unions full legal protection. He called this One Nation conservatism — keeping rich and poor together under the Crown. Abroad, he bought the Suez Canal shares (1875) and made Queen Victoria Empress of India (1876), defining Britain as a global empire.
Gladstone — moral reform and retrenchment (1868–1874, 1880–1885, 1886, 1892–1894)
Gladstone's First Ministry (1868–74) was the most reforming of the century: he disestablished the Irish Church (1869), passed the Irish Land Act (1870) to protect tenants, reformed the army (Cardwell Reforms) and opened civil service jobs to competitive examination. His later governments were increasingly consumed by Ireland. He believed that granting Ireland Home Rule — its own parliament in Dublin — was a moral necessity. His Home Rule Bills of 1886 and 1893 both failed, splitting his own Liberal Party and ending his dominance.
Salisbury — conservatism and caution (1885–1886, 1886–1892, 1895–1902)
Lord Salisbury served as Prime Minister three times, forming a long Conservative–Liberal Unionist alliance that kept the Liberals out of power for most of 1886–1905. He fiercely opposed Home Rule for Ireland and championed Unionism — keeping Ireland inside the United Kingdom. Domestically he was cautious, though his governments passed the Local Government Act (1888), creating elected county councils. His foreign policy focused on maintaining Britain's empire and avoiding European entanglements.
The Irish Question
Ireland was the defining political crisis of late Victorian Britain. After the catastrophic Irish Famine (covered in micro 18.10.1), Irish nationalism surged. The key demands were land reform (fairer rents, security of tenure) and Home Rule (a Dublin parliament).
The Land League (1879)
Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt founded the Land League to organise tenant resistance — including boycotts (the word itself comes from this period, from Captain Boycott). Gladstone responded with the Land Act of 1881, giving tenants the "three Fs": fair rent, fixity of tenure, and free sale.
Home Rule Bills (1886 and 1893)
Parnell's Irish Parliamentary Party at Westminster held the balance of power and pushed Gladstone towards Home Rule. His First Home Rule Bill (1886) proposed an Irish parliament for domestic affairs — but 93 Liberal MPs voted against it (the "Unionists"), and it was defeated 343–313. The split crippled the Liberals for a generation. Gladstone's Second Home Rule Bill (1893) passed the Commons but was crushed in the Lords.
Ulster and the Unionist bloc
Protestant Ulster (the north of Ireland) was intensely opposed to Home Rule, fearing Catholic majority rule. Salisbury and the Conservatives made Unionism — opposition to Irish self-government — a central plank of Conservative politics, coining the phrase "Ulster will fight, and Ulster will be right".
Essay focus: Disraeli vs Gladstone: Paper 3 essays often ask you to compare Disraeli and Gladstone. Key differences: Disraeli prioritised empire and social harmony (One Nation); Gladstone prioritised moral reform and retrenchment (reducing state spending). On Ireland: Disraeli resisted change; Gladstone tried to solve it through reform (and failed). Do not confuse Gladstone's four ministries — know the dates and main policies of each.
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After 1900 a new political force reshaped Britain. The Liberal Party won a landslide in 1906 and unleashed the most ambitious programme of social reform Britain had ever seen. At the same time, a new challenger appeared on the left: the Labour Party, founded in 1900 to give workers their own political voice.
Why social reform? The drivers of Liberal welfare: Three forces pushed Liberals towards reform. First, Booth and Rowntree's surveys (1889–1901) proved that poverty was not caused by laziness but by low wages, old age and ill-health — this gave reform a scientific justification. Second, the Boer War (1899–1902) revealed that 40% of army recruits were too unhealthy to serve, raising fears about national efficiency. Third, the rise of Labour threatened Liberal working-class votes — Liberals had to offer more to compete.
| Reform | Date | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| School meals Act | 1906 | Local councils must feed hungry school children |
| School medical inspections | 1907 | Doctors examine children at school for the first time |
| Old Age Pensions Act | 1908 | State pension of 5 shillings/week for those over 70 — paid to 500,000 people |
| Labour Exchanges Act | 1909 | Government offices where unemployed workers could find job listings |
| National Insurance Act | 1911 | Workers, employers and state all contribute; sickness benefit for 26 weeks, unemployment benefit for 15 weeks |
The "People's Budget" of 1909
To pay for these reforms — especially Old Age Pensions — David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced his famous "People's Budget" in 1909. He raised income tax, introduced a new supertax on the very wealthy, and added a tax on land values. He justified it in class terms: "It is a war budget. It is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalidness."
The constitutional crisis: Parliament Act 1911: The House of Lords — dominated by wealthy landowners — rejected the People's Budget in November 1909, violating the convention that the Lords never blocked money bills. This triggered a constitutional crisis. The Liberals fought two general elections in 1910, both winning narrow majorities. Under threat that the King would create enough new Liberal peers to swamp them, the Lords finally passed the Parliament Act (1911), which:
- Removed the Lords' power to block money bills entirely. - Reduced their veto on other bills to a two-year delay only. - Reduced the maximum term of a Parliament from seven to five years.
This permanently weakened the aristocracy's grip on British politics.
The emergence of the Labour Party: The Labour Representation Committee was founded in 1900 and renamed the Labour Party in 1906, after winning 29 seats in that year's election. It grew from the trade union movement and wanted workers — not just wealthy gentlemen — to sit in Parliament. Key figures included Keir Hardie, the first working-class MP. By 1910 Labour had 40 MPs, making it a genuine third force in British politics and forcing the Liberals to push social reform further than they might otherwise have done.
Link reforms to their causes: Do not just list Liberal reforms — explain WHY they happened. Examiners reward arguments about the interaction of forces: Labour pressure from the left, evidence from social surveys, lessons from the Boer War, and Lloyd George's personal ambition all combined. The Parliament Act should be linked to the People's Budget — they are one connected story about who held power in Britain.
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In the years before the First World War, Britain appeared to be on the brink of breakdown. Three overlapping crises — women demanding the vote, Ireland threatening civil war, and workers striking on an unprecedented scale — made the period 1910–1914 one of the most turbulent in modern British history.
Women's Suffrage
Suffragists (NUWSS) — law-abiding
- Founded 1897; led by Millicent Fawcett
- Used peaceful campaigning: petitions, speeches, meetings
- Believed in gradual persuasion of Parliament
- Mostly middle-class women; avoided violence
- Gained widespread sympathy but little action
Suffragettes (WSPU) — militant
- Founded 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters
- Escalated to window-smashing, arson, hunger strikes
- Slogan: 'Deeds not Words'
- Government used force-feeding of imprisoned hunger strikers
- Emily Wilding Davison killed at Epsom Derby 1913 (stepped in front of the King's horse)
The Cat and Mouse Act (1913): As suffragettes went on hunger strike in prison, the government faced a dilemma: force-feeding caused public outrage, but releasing prisoners looked like surrender. The Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act 1913 — nicknamed the Cat and Mouse Act — allowed the government to release women who were too weak, then re-arrest them when they recovered. It was widely seen as cruel and did not resolve the crisis. Women did not get the vote until 1918 (over 30) and 1928 (equal with men).
The Irish Home Rule Crisis
The Parliament Act (1911) had removed the Lords' permanent veto — meaning that a Home Rule Bill could now actually pass into law after a two-year delay. Gladstone's third attempt, the Third Home Rule Bill introduced by Herbert Asquith in 1912, was therefore genuinely threatening to Ulster Unionists.
- Ulster Volunteer Force (1913) — 100,000 armed Protestants drilling against Home Rule; guns smuggled from Germany at Larne (April 1914)
- Irish Volunteers (1913) — Catholic nationalist force formed in response; also armed
- Curragh Mutiny (1914) — British army officers in Ireland threatened to resign rather than enforce Home Rule on Ulster; showed government could not rely on its own army
- Buckingham Palace Conference (July 1914) — Asquith, Redmond, Carson and Bonar Law failed to find a compromise on Ulster exclusion
- Home Rule Act (September 1914) — passed and put on the statute book, but suspended for the duration of the First World War — a delay that proved fatal to the compromise
Trade Union Militancy
The years 1910–1914 are sometimes called the "Great Unrest" — a wave of major strikes that disrupted the economy and alarmed the government. Real wages had stagnated while prices rose; workers were angry.
- 1910–11 Miners' Strike — South Wales miners struck over pay; riots at Tonypandy; Home Secretary Winston Churchill sent troops
- 1911 Seamen's and Dockers' Strike — national port shutdowns paralysed trade
- 1911 Railway Strike — first national rail strike in British history; food supplies threatened
- Triple Alliance (1913) — miners, railwaymen and transport workers agreed to support each other in disputes; terrified employers and government alike
- Dublin Lockout (1913) — employer William Martin Murphy locked out 20,000 workers represented by Jim Larkin's union; lasted 8 months; Larkin and James Connolly emerged as socialist leaders
Three crises, one question: In August 1914 Britain went to war — and all three crises were shelved overnight. The suffragettes suspended militancy; the Irish Home Rule crisis was frozen; the unions backed the war effort. But each unresolved tension would return after 1918 with greater force. Examiners sometimes ask whether Britain in 1914 was heading for revolution — the answer requires weighing all three crises together.